The purpose of this research is to improve nursing care of the cancer patient. The objectives are: 1) to evaluate the reactions of cancer patients to the changes in their perceptions and experiences after the diagnosis and initiation of treatment of cancer, 2) to develop an assessment tool to be used to identify not only the apparent problems but also the less apparent and underlying problems. An evaluative survey study will examine the nature of the reactions of cancer patient to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Those reactions will be viewed through the Johnson Conceptual Framework. Problems will be identified within each of the eight subsystems of the model and categorized according to the types of problems the model describes. Analysis of each subsystem in relation to the others will be done to determine the nature and degree of the imbalance in that particular subsystem(s). This approach will be one of the first attempts in nursing research to evaluate, in a research manner, nursing problems of cancer patients based on a comprehensive conceptual framework. The study will be developed from pilot work already completed by the researchers in collaboration with a graduate student. This pilot study identified significant areas of change in each of the subsystems defined by the conceptual framework among a group of cancer patients. The study proposed here will provide a comprehensive and comparative examination of changes in patients' perceptions and experiences after diagnosis of cancer.